So what? The Republican candidate whoever he is will tiptoe around the first woman running for president as he did (twice) around the first black.

Perhaps, but first she has to go up against other Democrat candidates like ol' Joe Biden and Andy Cuomo, (and perhaps even the Cherokee princess herself, Elizabeth Warren). In short, she has to survive on onslaught from the peanut gallery first.

Until she actually starts to look decrepit, I don't see how this Hillary = Old thing hurts her. I mean, maybe it's intended to hurt her with Democratic primary voters, who are often keen to go with youth, enthusiasm, and total inexperience (John Edwards, Barack Obama), over age and sobriety. But for the electorate overall, I don't think it's problematic. If she were a man, would her age be such an obstacle? I tend to think it would not, unless she had other serious health complications.

Balfegor, since Samuel J. Tllden ran way back post-Civil War, Dems have only nominated ONE non-sitting Presidential candidate over the age of 60 - John Kerry at age 61 in 2004. The Democratic Party idolizes youth.

Palladian said... The difference between The Rolling Stones and Hillary Clinton: the Stones wrote & recorded, among many other things, Let It Bleed & Exile on Main Street. Hillary Clinton did... what, exactly?

Well, after graduating from law school, she married the man who was elected governor of Arkansas for a bunch of terms. While First Lady of Arkansas, she got a plum job at the Rose Law Firm and made a lot of money on questionable cattle futures and real estate deals.

Then, her husband gets elected president. While First Lady of the US, she tried and failed to reform health care.

After leaving the White House, she was elected to the Senate from a state where she'd never lived. (Why are New Yorkers so stupid to do that?) After a few years with few accomplishments in the Senate, she ran for the presidency and lost the nomination to BO.

When BO was elected, he put her in as Secretary of State where she traveled a lot, making a mess of a lot of things. Her leadership at the State Department got some people killed and more nations than ever are pissed off at us.

Compared to Obama's resume before running for office, she's over qualified for the Democrat nomination. God forbid she wins office.

I agree with Bob, her candidacy and term(s) as president would a painful experience given what she's given us so far. Beyond her inevitability, is this the best the democrats can come up with? The republicans aren't likely to compete so gives us your best shot.

I'm serious, no dubious connections, small state corruption, riding on your hubby's coattails.

This is proof the republican establishment wants Hillary to win. If they wanted to defeat Hillary they would talk about her record rather than building sympathy for her. She is the biggest failure at State ever. And that is a pretty rotten list. She sold the weapons to Ansar al sharia they used to raze the consulate and Stevens was trying to buy them back. Clinton is a disgusting human being but the repubs are trying to humanize her.

They will push for a Hillary Christie election. Both of them support gun control and both of them will be described as "moderate." Both of them want bigger government. That is the goal.

This is proof the republican establishment wants Hillary to win. If they wanted to defeat Hillary they would talk about her record rather than building sympathy for her. She is the biggest failure at State ever. And that is a pretty rotten list. She sold the weapons to Ansar al sharia they used to raze the consulate and Stevens was trying to buy them back. Clinton is a disgusting human being but the repubs are trying to humanize her.

No, they'll just let her and Shotgun Joe gum each other to death.

Neither has a prayer of surviving the primaries. Look at how she had her clock cleaned last time.

I saw that "The Daily Beast" has a Michael Tomasky article on the same subject, saying that it may backfire on the Republicans if they use that strategy.

I'll put it like this: Ronald Reagan was 69 years old at his first inauguration; he turned 70 a couple of weeks later. Hillary Clinton will be 69 years old on Inauguration Day 2017; she'll turn 70 in October of that year.

Any Democrat who was around in the 1980s and never made a wisecrack or complaint about Reagan's age has standing to wag their finger plaintively at Republicans if they say Clinton is too old. The rest of them are hypocrites and are welcome to consume a large container of STFU.

I don't think she would be much older than Reagan. What has Hillery ever accomplish? Other than marrying BJ and self-promoting herself, she has screwed up every job she has had including her latest job. Concerning her old looks, I'm tired of seeing that old face.

Way, way, way, way, way, way, way too fucking many women in positions of power, and they are not temperamentally suited or equipped to deal with the man-level situations the wider world presents. They are naive and over-matched.

You can just waive in nowadays so long as you're admitted somewhere else, so I'm not sure why anyone would ever bother taking the DC bar. But some people do. Maybe it was different back in the day . . .

She IS old news. It's hardly an "attack" to notice that she's been harping on political bullshit for over 20 years.

Any Democrat who was around in the 1980s and never made a wisecrack or complaint about Reagan's age has standing to wag their finger plaintively at Republicans if they say Clinton is too old. The rest of them are hypocrites and are welcome to consume a large container of STFU.

But she is not a man, and it could and probably is more of an obstacle. I hope you're not trying to make the "fairness" argument that no one can ever say anything about a woman that they wouldn't say about a man. It's about time that sophomoric claptrap was stricken from the national dialogue.

But she is not a man, and it could and probably is more of an obstacle. I hope you're not trying to make the "fairness" argument that no one can ever say anything about a woman that they wouldn't say about a man. It's about time that sophomoric claptrap was stricken from the national dialogue.

"After leaving the White House, she was elected to the Senate from a state where she'd never lived. (Why are New Yorkers so stupid to do that?)"

I live in NY so I can say this - because many NY'ers (excluding myself) are DUMB. Anthony Weiner is currently leading in the polls here for next Mayor, if that says anything.What do you expect from a blue state?

Hillary's age is irrelevant, and we should stop talking about it. It just gets her sympathy.

In 2008, all the smart people said it was inevitable that she would be nominated. As a result, no one seriously ran against her but the junior senator from Illinois. Although Obama certainly ran an excellent technical campaign, what he really showed was that Hillary was not a very good candidate.

What people ought to focus on is her performance as Secretary of State, her last public office (presumably) when she runs for President. Although there was all sorts of gooey sentimentality when she left office, so far as I can tell she accomplished NOTHING while at State. Yes, she traveled a lot and met a lot of foreign leaders -- just as she had as First Lady -- but she didn't DO anything, did she? Other than punt on Benghazi.

it's not her age, it's that she's 'old news'. we don't need to keep recycling the same families through the whitehouse. it would be nice if, this time around, we were to elect somebody based on their qualifications rather than the color of their skin or their gender.

The Stones work about 2 months out of the year, and that's when they're on tour. They are resting on their well deserved laurels. Hillary doesn't have any such laurels to rest on and the Presidency is a huge constant time and energy commitment - if you're doing it right. Ahem. We ready know that she was t up for the 3 am call. Or she was and she decided incorrectly. And had been making bad decisions for several months before and continued to do so for several months Fger Benghazi. Retiring was a good decision. Credit where credit is due.

Above, I wrote that women "are not temperamentally suited or equipped to deal with the man-level situations the wider world presents".

Here's an example situation: how to deal with a 'playground' bully.

One needs to first understand that a bully is challenging the boyhood/manhood of the male they are picking on - essentially saying to the public - "this person is a wuss. Watch and see."

The typical female advice as to how to handle this occasion is to "report the bully to the authorities". This action, if taken, confirms the bully's taunt. It is a "wuss" move, no doubt.

The male advice is to physically confront the bully. Even if you lose, you prove you are NOT a wuss, and the bully will now lose status if he continues to bully you (see fight scene in Cool Hand Luke).

One can easily transfer this to the world stage, and thus see the consequences of the typical female response.